I have reason to believe some
readers still take the USELESS FACTS too serious.
Don't! They're just entertainment. If you don't like them,
unsubscribe but don't send me any idiotic comments. That applies in
particular to a guy named Alf. [Ha, ha... are you an alien by the
way?]

I
SPY

Kosmos-2349
-- or should I say, Spin 2?

News agency Itar-Tass reported that the Kosmos-2349 military
satellite has been successfully put to orbit by a Soyuz-U rocket.
Tuesday's launch was second Soyuz flight in 1998.

And usually, that's all we get to know about Kosmos satellites.
Unless they appear under a different name in a press release
published by a U.S. company that [surprise!] offers snapshots from
space.

"World's
largest digital atlas"

According to Aerial Images of the U.S., that's what it's all
about. Of course, an Atlas is one of the things one could do
with high-resolution imagery supplied by a Russian reconnaissance
bird. There are other purposes, limited only by your imagination.

Aerial Images notes that the successful launch of Kosmos-2349, or
Spin-2 as they call it, represents the first space launch of a
commercial 2-meter resolution Earth imaging satellite, supplying the
highest resolution satellite imagery ever made available for
commercial use.. It is the first of a four-mission project to collect
detailed satellite images of the entire United States and the major
urban regions around the world. [This indicates, of course, that this
is a short-term flight -- they usually last just a couple of days.
The pictures will be taken with optical cameras and return to Earth
aboard the satellite.]

When all four missions are complete, coast-to-coast coverage of
up-to-date Spin-2 images of the entire United States will be
accessible via the TerraServer on the Internet and on CD-ROM.
Introductory pricing makes 2-meter imagery (b/w) available at a
fraction of the traditional remote sensing satellite costs.

The TerraServer is a joint project of Microsoft, Aerial Images,
Inc., Digital Equipment Company, Sovinformsputnik and Kodak. The
TerraServer will soon become the world's largest digital atlas of
actual images of the Earth's surface.

USELESS FACT:
Stewardesses is the longest word that can be typed using only the
left hand.

LAUNCHES

Iridium
47-51

Iridium may not only hold a record for satellites in orbit but
also for launch delays.

A Boeing Delta II rocket successfully carried five Iridium
satellites to low-earth-orbit early today after the launch had to be
postponed eight times before. The launch took within a five-second
window necessary to place the five satellites into co-ordinated
orbits with the 46 already in the constellation. Satellite separation
occurred approximately 80 minutes after lift-off.

Forty-nine of the 66 Iridium satellites needed to commence
commercial service in September are now in orbit and functioning
properly [two more are in also orbit but do not function properly.]

Boeing began the year with 18 launches on its manifest. Two of
these missions are for the new Delta III which has an 3780-kg payload
-- roughly twice that of the Delta II, Boeing said in a press
release.

USELESS FACT: The
average American uses eight times as much fuel as anyone else in the
world.

Early
Bird, second try

Early Bird 2, a follow-up to what was supposed to become the
first commercial imaging satellite, will be launched aboard a Russian
Start-1 rocket from the Svobodny cosmodrome, reported Itar-Tass.

Early Bird 1 went silent four days after its successful launch
last December and hasn't been heard of ever since. Sergei Zinchenko,
General Director of the science and research centre Kompleks, pointed
out that the failure was with the satellite's onboard systems and not
with the launcher.

An exact launch date for Early Bird 2 is not known but is expected
for the second half of 1998. According to Zichenko, the satellite
operator EarthWatch "has encountered problems in the manufacture
of the spacecraft."

The Start-1 rocket, produced by the Kompleks centre, is based upon
the military missile system Topol. There's yet another customer for a
Start-1 launch, which reportedly costs US$6 to 8 million: a Swedish
satellite by the name of Odin is to be launched in the middle of the
year.

BUSINESS

PanAmSat
claims Intelsat has too much market power

PanAmSat Corporation released two studies that, according to
the company, "demonstrate the continuing market power wielded by
Intelsat and its owners, including Comsat of the United States."

A PanAmSat press release said "the studies raise serious
questions about the prospects for Comsat deregulation and the
efficacy of current plans for Intelsat restructuring." One study
finds that Intelsat still has significant market power while the
other one says that Intelsat has market power that is not
significantly constrained by competition. [You get the idea.]

There has been more criticism, which of course is a reaction to
Intelsat's announcement to Spin off six of its satellites to a newly
formed public company called INC. Comsat President and CEO Betty
Alewine: "For years, Comsat's competitors have complained that
they can't compete with an intergovernmental satellite organisation
and have vigorously urged policy makers to pursue a pro-competitive
privatisation of Intelsat. Now that the U.S. government is on the
verge of successfully achieving its first goal in this process,
Comsat's competitors are crying wolf."

"It defies logic that Hughes/PanAmSat -- with its
17-satellite system scheduled to increase to 23 satellites by next
year -- could fear a system of six satellites, two of which are yet
to be launched," Alewine added. "INC will succeed or fail
on the basis of its ability to attract and retain customers -- just
like any other business."

USELESS FACT: The
average American uses eight times as much fuel as anyone else in the
world.

Loral
may buy Comsat

Loral Space & Communications is reportedly seeking to
purchase all or a part of Comsat, the U.S. Intelsat signatory which
holds a 19-percent stake in the International Telecommunications
Satellite Organisation.

According to the latest rumours, both companies have entered into
a confidentiality agreement to explore the possibility further.
Observers noted that an all-out acquisition of Comsat would cost at
least US$1.4 billion, the current market capitalisation of the
company. Comsat's share price has risen in the last days after the
announcement of Intelsat's privatisation plans.

While a Loral spokesman would neither deny nor confirm the
existence of a confidentiality agreement, a Comsat spokeswoman
attributed the story to "market rumours."

USELESS FACT:
Percentage of Americans who could not recognize George Bush : 44.
[What about the percentage of Americans that don't recognise Monica
L.?]

Playboy
in bed with Spice

Here's another one from last week. Yep, still catching up with
the latest developments. Playboy Enterprises Inc. will spend US$95
million to acquire Spice Entertainment.

No matter what you think about Bill C., the self-proclaimed Major
Glory that saves the world peace [what a ridiculous figure he is
indeed] and what he did with Monica L., not to mention all the other
women -- sex is a big seller in the U.S. of A. Actually, porn is the
driving source behind the pay-per-view business that now generates
almost US$200 million a year. Adult buys account for an average 20
percent of gross PPV sales each year and almost 30 percent of net
sales.

According to terms of the deal, Spice will keep its digital
operations centre for video and Internet broadcasts, as well as
receive an option to buy the outstanding stock of C-Band adult
provider Emerald Media Inc. and certain rights to adult film library
product.

Playboy, to my knowledge more on the soft-core side of the
business, reported US$30,000 in losses for the quarter ended Dec. 31.
Its Playboy TV and AdulTVision reported increases though. Spice,
providing more or less hard-core programming, is even expected to
possibly spin off a separate public company following the cash
injection the Playboy deal. The company is or was according to some
ancient Sat-ND (25.4.96) involved in European pay-TV porn channel
EurOtica. [Does is still exist? No idea. I don't watch that kinda
channels anyway.]

USELESS FACT:
Simone de Beauvoir had her first orgasm thanks to Nelson Algren.

SATELLITES

Helter
Skelter

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had
a problem with its GOES 10 satellite that has been launched almost a
year ago to replace either GOES 8 or GOES 9, depending on which one
fails first.

Being weather satellites, the GOES birds have to monitor a fixed
part of the globe. That means that their solar arrays have to be able
to move in order to follow the sun. Otherwise, they wouldn't produce
sufficient energy for the spacecraft to operate.

Thing is: GOES 10's arrays are stuck for unknown reasons. The
failure, which almost turned the satellite to space junk, was
detected last May. There was a solution to that problem, though: the
satellite was meanwhile turned upside down once controllers found out
that its solar arrays may not be able to move forward but at least
backward.

Of course, the images received are now all upside-down. That's no
problem for even the most simple imaging software, but the software
for processing GOES images reportedly had to be updated to reflect
the satellite's new attitude. Testing still continues, but once it's
done GOES 10 will be put into hibernation until GOES 9 or 10 have to
be replaced.

USELESS FACT:
Impotence is legal grounds for divorce in 24 American states.

ONLINE

Microsoft
discovered the Vertical Blank

Microsoft Corp. is working with twelve broadcasters and cable
programmers in a series of trials to broadcast data and program
enhancements into U.S. homes.

Participating television broadcasters will be able to send data to
computer users tuned to their channel. The system uses the vertical
blank interrupt (VBI) part of the TV signal to deliver data, which by
the way has been common practice in Europe for centuries. The system
is called teletext, but the difference is that you don't need a
computer to receive news, sports, programme schedules and such.
They're simply displayed on your TV screen, usually at no additional
charge. Not as good-looking as HTML, but readable, and that's what
counts.

Microsoft Windows 98 broadcast-enabled PCs will be capable of
receiving and displaying data in HTML format, as will current WebTV
Plus boxes. They need a free software upgrade scheduled to be
available later this year. [WebTV is a Microsoft subsidiary.] No
dates or specific regions for the trials were disclosed, nor was it
clear whether other TV/PC platforms eventually would be able to
access the transmissions.

Microsoft supplied the hardware and software necessary for the
trials. Each broadcaster received a PC server running the Windows NT
Server operating system version 4.0, hardware required for VBI
injections, and broadcast server software developed by Microsoft that
uses standard Internet IP multicasting protocols.

But even HTML via VBI is not new: to my knowledge, a similar
service is already offered in Germany, although a proprietary box is
needed to decode the transmitted Web pages that can then be stored on
your PC [at an additional fee.]

USELESS FACT: On
any given day, Americans spend over $33 million buying lottery
tickets.

CHANNELS

Palestinian
censorship, part II

The Palestinian Authority said it would close down several
dozen privately-run radio and television stations if they do not
obtain interior ministry authorisation.

The threat, expressed in letters sent to broadcasters, marks a
policy shift. Until now, broadcasters had to obtain the authorisation
from the ministry of information.

Meanwhile, nine broadcasters have been shut down temporarily "for
technical reasons." The Palestinian information ministry said
the broadcasters failed to meet technical standards for radio and
television broadcasts.

The crackdown on independent media seems to be related to the
stand-off between the U.S. and Iraq. Palestinian police reportedly
closed a local television station in the Bethlehem area after it
invited viewers to express their solidarity with the Iraqi people, a
member of staff was quoted as saying. As reported (Sat-ND, 16.2.98,)
the Palestinian information ministry told commercial television and
radio stations they "must abstain from broadcasting any comment
... relative to developments in the Iraqi crisis."

USELESS FACT:
Andrew Jackson was the only U.S. President to believe that the world
is flat. [Alf: that's a very good example for an untrue USELESS
FACT. I have the strong impression U.S. presidents
including the current one believe in even more ridiculous fads and
fallacies than that.]

RUPERTWATCH

UK
Digital TV confusion

Papers in the UK now refer to the launch of digital TV there as
an "autumn lunch" even though satellite operator SES will
be moving over one of its precious birds over to 28.2°E within
the next few days in order to enable test broadcasts.

I would pay just about any sum to get hold of a copy of the
contract between Mr Murdoch's BSkyB and Luxembourg-base satellite
operator SES. Has Rupert paid for (part of) the Astra-2 series just
as he did for Astra 1A by shelling out the lease for four
transponders ten years in advance? Is SES obliged to send Astra 1D
over to sit in for Astra 2A although that makes no commercial sense
whatsoever at all? On the contrary -- the ride will shorten 1D's life
by at least two or three months while leaving the 19.2° position
without a full backup. SES will be in deep trouble should either the
launch of Astra 2A fail or any other bird at 19.2°E go gaga. Not
likely but definitely possible. This is of course not the
conservative security-first approach for which SES has been known so
far.

Flextech
with Bill and Ted?

But what will happen at 28.2°E, the new SES position for
digital TV beamed to the UK? The Observer reported that Multichannel
television company Flextech, a subsidiary of U.S. cable giant TCI, is
planning to take on BSkyB in a tripartite deal with Bill Gates's
Microsoft and Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting. [It's owned by
Time-Warner actually, dear colleagues.] The partnership would seek to
create a digital satellite package to rival BSkyB's planned autumn
launch of digital satellite, the paper said.

It becomes interesting by the fact that Flextech also owns the
distribution rights to BBC channels such as UK Gold, UK Horizons and
UK Arena, as well as the Discovery Channel and UK Living. Those
rights have not been exploited in long-term deals so far. Flextech is
reportedly negotiating with BSkyB on an agreement for their channels
to be carried on BSkyB's digital TV platform.

Let's hope that particular deal goes down the drain. Turner
Broadcasting has long eschewed joining BSkyB's multi-channel package
on satellite, preferring to let its channels such as CNN, TNT and
Cartoon Network be broadcast free, the Observer noted. It should stay
that way!